New Anti-gang Strategy is Introduced by Chief Bratton

By Alex Alonso
Staffwriter Streetgangs.com Magazine

January 15, 2003

Chief Bratton speaks to the media about gang violence

At the Crenshaw Christian Center, Chief Bratton spoke to a crowd of mostly media personal about the new anti-gang initiative that was recently implemented by LAPD. Bratton acknowledged all the entities that have been working for the last 45 days, since Michael Hillman's appointment as Gang Czar, on developing a comprehensive and creative anti-gang initiative. The mayor, city attorney, district attorney, and Sheriff Lee Baca had all been working together on this initiative. Bratton talked about collaborating with federal and local officials in combating crime in Los Angeles, specifically in the South Bureau (Southwest, Southeast, 77th, and Harbor) and Newton division that saw over 40% of LA's homicides. He stated that the 77th Street Division had the most homicides of the 18 divisions of the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) and that the city had more murders than any other city in the US, making 77th Division the murder capital of the US with 120 killings.

With the support of 35 religious leaders, grass roots leader, community activist, and residents that were standing with Bratton, he introduced the proto-type (phase 1) of the beginning stages of the plan to reduce crime and gang activity in these five divisions. Phase two, which will be developed in the coming weeks, will reorganize the department so that it can effectively combat crime. Bratton stated, "it is my impression that this department for the last several years has been on the bench, they have not even been on the field. Today marks us getting back into the game and on the field." After the command staff retreat that the LAPD is having next weekend, phase II and III will be developed. The third stage of this effort is to take the anti-gang initiative, that will be immediately implemented in these five divisions, to all 18 divisions which will be the job of newly appointed gang czar Chief Hillman.

Chief Hillman the newly appointed gang czar

The fourth stage will be the articulation of the "plan of action," developed from the collaboration of working with all the consultants, and that information will be unveiled on March 1, 2003. Bratton stated that "it won't be easy with only 9,200 [officers]," but emphasized that thousands of community people want to work with the LAPD and that he will be able to build trust and relationships to get the job done. Chief Hillman and Jim McDonnell will implement most of Bratton's plans and the long-term strategy is under development and has not been specifically designed. Those later plans will be integrated into the CSOC and throughout all 18 divisions.

Hillman then did a presentation on the new anti-gang initiative, which currently consists of a collaborative effort between law enforcement and the community to impact crime by specifically targeting gangs. The most significant components would include a Community Impact Advisory Team, Clergy Councils, Community Police Advisory Boards, Neighborhood Watch Groups, Neighborhood Councils, and public and private community organizations. The Community Impact Advisory Team (CIAT) consists initially of the 35 grassroots community leaders (that were present) to assist with developing crime strategies, alert the community, exchange information, dispel rumors, and TEAMWORK LA, Mayor Hahn's initiative. CIAT developed four subcommittees; prevention, intervention, clergy, and public awareness.

Phase 1, or the immediate action to the anti-gang initiative was to operationalize resources and deployment, which began on November 26, 2002. At the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza mall CSOC was established. They immediately began to redeploy units for high visibility crime suppression to respond to increased gang violence. They did that by using Motor Task Force units, Metro Division, Narcotics Division, Fugitive Warrant Section and the Organized Crime and Vice Division to identify the most active gangs in Los Angeles.

Chief and other commanding offiers of the Community Safety Operations Center

Phase II, which began on January 3, 2003, consisted of coordinating additional resources to target violent suspects and crime locations. They began talks with the FBI, the US Attorney, ATF, and US Marshal's Office. The Los Angeles Sheriff's Department (LASD) was emphasized to be a real partner in this effort too. There has been much criticism that the two departments did not work well together in the past, but Hillman stressed that they have been working very closely with OSS (Operations Safe Streets) of the LASD. Additionally, the LA Unified School District, Probation, Parole, and the California Youth Authority have been in talks with the LAPD.

The CSOC center will be gathering intelligence and doing crime analysis. The detectives at the CSOC center will liaison with area commanding officers, area detectives, area Special Enforcement Units (SEU), LASD, and LAUSD. There will be a 24-hour gang hotline at 213-847-1321 where they will be soliciting tips also.

Hillman stated that did not believed that the recent drop in crime in December and early January were related to the weather or did not reflect natural trends for those months, but were the result of the implementation of CSOC on November 26, 2002. Bratton reported that as of Jan. 11, 2003 compared to last year, crime dropped 41%. There were 16 homicides last year at this time in the 77th Division and only three murders to date. These numbers are a bit misleading because it is difficult to make comparisons based on 11 days or even one month. Bratton assured the community that the core violent gang members will be the focus of these policing efforts. His emphasis on focusing on violent offenders is unlike Daryl Gates' strategies during the 1980s and early 1990s, namely the "Batter Ram" and "Operation Hammer" where many innocent citizen became victim to aggressive policing and the net arrest of violent offenders was minimal. In, 1988, when Operation Hammer was vigorously used, by year.s end crime and gang related violence reached new levels and proved to be a failure and a waste of resources. Knowing this, Bratton is being very careful not to repeat these mistakes while he assure the community than it will be clear who the police will be targeting.

Commander Richard Roupoli addresses the media regarding their plans to focus on gang violence.

Bratton talked about giving the youth alternatives such as playgrounds, better schools, and jobs. The LAPD can have an impact but it will be a complete effort. It was asked, "What's really new here, if anything. You have had community support of LAPD for a long time, particularly from people in this room right know, and you have had limited support from people in the streets. you have always had collaborations effort with other agencies, what is new and different now?" Bratton deferred that question to Chief Hillman who responded, "we are taking a number of officers and specifically placing them where the problems exists and during the times those problems exists." He admitted that this may sound very basic, but narcotics, detectives, and gang officers together becomes a more focused effort against the gangs and those individuals along with the community support makes it different. Also the gang hotline is a number that allows one to be anonymous about tips.

After the presentation, Hillman invited the public to visit the CSOC center at the Baldwin Hills Crenshaw Plaza for a tour. Detectives employed at the center specialize in gangs and work solely on gang cases. The commanding officer of CSOC is Richard Poley and it is run by Lieutenant Jim "JJ" May, and Bob Green. The Lieutenants are in charge of the operation command that deals with available resources and deployment. Every morning at about 10:00 the commanding officers come into the CSOC center to discuss the gangs that were most active the day before and decide what gang and gang members should be targeted. They also use a Cal Gang crime analyst to examine crime data using a Geographic Information System that provides information on how to deploy and who to target. Then the community impact advisory team provides information about gang hangouts, funerals, meeting and parties and this center that operates seven days a week.

John Miller speaks with Alex Alonso about his new job as special assistant to the Chief of LAPD

John Miller who recently retired as anchor for 20/20 spoke to streetgangs.com in his first interview in Los Angeles to talk about the differences of street crime and terrorism. Chief Bratton had recently likened the crime of street gangs to the criminal activity to the five-mafia families of New York as domestic terrorism. Miller stated that street crime is more profit driven and terrorism has a political gain but to combat both a certain level of intelligence gathering is necessary. "Terrorism's goal is to generate fear with a political end," Miller stated, "and when gangs take over neighborhoods there is a strain of terrorism that causes fear in the community." Miller shared that it was dangerous being in Pakistan when he interviewed Osuma bin Laden and that his team was at one point under gunfire when traveling through Taliban controlled land by Al Queda people. When considering what happened to journalist Daniel Pearl last year in Pakistan, what John Miller did in tracking down bin Laden seems like a dangerous task where there are no rules and Islamic fundamentalism appears to be the prevailing philosophy throughout lawless areas of the Middle East, Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Miller's new job with the LAPD is as Special Assistant to the chief and will involve Counter Terrorism for the City of Los Angeles. Miller will define Los Angeles' readiness today, and add any necessary plans to heighten Los Angeles' readiness. Long-term plans include an expansion of the program, and additional numbers of people assigned to Counter terrorism, and to liaison with federal, state and local agencies to be in the best position to deal with terrorism, identify potential threats, and to gather intelligence to prevent future attacks, such as the devestaing attacks on New York City September 11, 2001.

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Mr. Alonso can be contacted by email by viewing his extended contact information.